Textile Insight

January / February 2021

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an international leader in third-party certification, valida- tion, and verification for environmental, sustainability, and food safety and quality performance claims. Additionally, Unifi includes a proprietary tracer in every pound of Repreve polyester and nylon produced throughout the world such that REPREVE and REPREVE Our Ocean fibers are embedded with a proprietary FiberPrint technology that helps customers avoid false environmental claims. "In addition to our SCS, GRS, Oeko-tex and Ocean Cycle certifications for recycled content, we issue our own U-Trust Certifications by testing fabrics and/or garments for the presence of REPREVE fiber to further assure our customers their product is made with recycled REPREVE content," confirmed Jay Hertwig, SVP, Commercialization, Unifi Manufacturing. Internal market research showed consumers are on board with Repreve Our Ocean. In a recent poll of 500 consumers, 55 percent responded that Repreve Our Ocean is something they would like to see their favorite brand use and 58 percent of those surveyed agreed that products made with Repreve Our Ocean are worth paying more for. W.L. Gore Scaling a Supply Chain through Collaboration Gore has been working closely with BIONIC over the past three years on product and infrastructure development. The companies recently achieved an early milestone in the relationship with the recovery, processing and ship- ment of approximately 10 tons of ocean and ocean-bound plastics for conversion into high-performance textiles and products. According to Rubin, "While our initial efforts will focus on the development of a fully-traceable supply chain for high performance textiles made from plastics collected from coastal communities, we also see potential in incor- porating Bionic's recycled polymers in other aspects of our diverse product portfolio." Bionic is a supplier of textiles and polymers made with coastal and marine plastic for apparel, footwear and bags for consumer and industrial markets. Described as a "true collabo- ration," Bionic offers expertise in grassroots collection and doing meaningful work in the community, while Gore offers scalability and enhancement of performance, and together they share the goal of driving demand for the ocean plastics category by building a sustain- able supply chain for upcycled marine bound plastics that meet Gore's high standards of durability, longevity and value. "Right now we are in the development process and validating that the material meets our performance cri- teria. Once that is complete, we'll be looking at multiple channels of business models," explained Rubin, who confirmed that while there is brand crossover potential with Bionic, it is too soon to announce any partnerships. When asked if waterproof/breathables made from plastic bottles captured from coastal areas is on Gore's horizon, Rubin stressed the immediate goals of creating high-performance textiles and propelling the collaboration forward. Currently the pilot community is in a remote peninsula that sits off the mainland of Costa Rica. The production scale prototype facility in Santa Teresa has 150 ton capac- ity and can be increased, and duplicated in other parts within and outside of Costa Rica. "Our focus for this project is stopping the flow of plas- tics into the ocean and taking a long term view," Rubin shared. "The big difference here is creating high-quality textiles for durable, long lasting garments and reducing the environmental impact."l textileinsight.com January/February 2021 ~ Textile Insight • 29 Unifi embeds Repreve Our Ocean fibers with technology to enhance transparency. Gore has been working closely with Bionic to develop recycling infrastructure. Repreve Our Ocean Certified Supply Chain "In addition to our SCS, GRS, Oeko-tex and Ocean Cycle certifications for recycled content, we issue our own U-Trust Certifications by testing fabrics and/or garments for the presence of REPREVE fiber to further assure our customers their product is made with recycled REPREVE content." Jay Hertwig, Unifi "Right now we are in the development process and validating that the material meets our performance criteria. Once that is complete, we'll be looking at multiple channels of business models." Ed Rubin, Gore

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